Apparently it's tough to kill a purple-haired, sexy Cyclops, a beer-guzzling robot, a mutant lobster/walrus that sounds like George Jessel and a dimwitted but sweet delivery man-child.

As well it should be. Comedy Central resuscitates "Futurama" with 26 new episodes beginning Thursday, June 24.

Fox ran it for five seasons, bouncing it around the schedule. Repeats were surprisingly popular on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block, which led to four direct-to-DVD movies.

Sticking with its impertinent attitude, the return episode opens with a frog that says, "You will awaken completely refreshed, as if 'Futurama' had never been canceled by idiots and brought back by bigger idiots." The first episode, "Rebirth," mocks its situation and is about being reborn. As usual, it's very funny.

"Everybody kind of likes him because he's flawed," West says. "But all of the characters are flawed. I try to keep him as innocent as he can be. He's not afraid to cry."

Fry has a halting, awkward way about him, evident in his voice. But it's Dr. Zoidberg whose muffled tones are hilarious. West recalls going on the audition for "Futurama" and being shown different drawings.

When they got to Zoidberg, he says, "I saw this meat hanging off his face. His speech would be impinged or impaired somehow. I figured a combination of George Jessel and Lou Jacobi."

He explains this while talking like Zoidberg.

But it's Bender's amoral shenanigans that invariably steal the show. In the return episode, everyone is reborn, but Bender needs a new energy source. Naturally they have surplus doomsday devices handy and give him one, but it's too intense. He either parties until he burns off the excess energy, or the world will know from doomsday.

"I certainly enjoy writing for Bender," executive producer David X. Cohen says. "He has no shame. Of all the obnoxious, disgusting things the writers ever wanted to do but had some degree of self-control that stopped them from doing it -- they can do for Bender. He has every vice known to man."